Job Discussion Forums

[I'm With Stupid]

[The Mad Hatter]

I think he means classes all over the clock. A little early am, lets say two days a week. After that go home and hang out for a while and pretend to sleep or get out of the sun- or at a cafe .Then about three more classes three days a week at the 1 pm hour at a different location, say- across town. Then once 4 pm hits theres rush our slowly building. No time for dinner, and its off to a different part of town for just one class somewhere. at 5 to 7 pm. then next day same thing but first shift at a UNI in a suburb perhaps. Or a kids school for one or two classes. remember you have to bring all sorts of different books for each class at each school.
At the end of the week you've been chasing all over town, step N fetch it, and your got a grand total of about 18 hours and prices for that trip to Mui Ne or just that air ticket you want, are still out of reach.
what it means is the economy is so well situated and set in its ways that even basic market forces of supply and demand play no role in weening out the schools. they don't consolidate into one with a lot of hours for teachers, instead they all reduce hours equally but all stay open. Its the pace of life in Vietnam. It is capable of slowing to a crawl and everyone keeps on like nothings changed or unusual. Its can get even slower I imagine.

[Oh My God]

Breaking News: The Pity Train has just derailed at the intersection of Suck It Up & Move On and crashed into We All Have Problems before coming to a complete stop at Get the Hell Over It. Reporting LIVE from Quitchur Bitchin'. !!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a little humor for what some may see as a dire situation. LOL

[I'm With Stupid]

[LettersAthruZ]

[I'm With Stupid]

I'm sure that a 12 month contract doesn't mean that they are legally required to employ you for 12 months no matter what the circumstances. If they cut your contract short, they cut your contract short, and pay you for what you've worked. And then what? You're in no worse a position than you would've been if you were part-time. But we're talking about a slowdown in enrolments, not a collapse of the entire industry. And when there are fewer hours in any school, they'll give them to the full-timers first, which means they are less affected by the situation in the industry at any given moment.

[snollygoster]

Most of my employment as an ESL teacher in Vietnam has been with the "better" schools and establishments, with full-time contracts with paid holidays and other perks, punctuated with short-term stints in a few cowboy outfits.

Contracts are usually honored in the better schools, but having a contract in hand in the cowboy outfits is no guarantee of anything. As another poster noted, its fine if you can, and are prepared to outsepend them on lawyers to prove you are rigtht. You can be the poorest "right" ESL teacher in Vietnam.

I have herad of this happening only once- The teacher won, but paid handsomely to say "See-I was right".

A contract is a worthless piece of paper with a few red stamps in the ESL game in Vietnam.

[The Mad Hatter]

Even when the economy was good in the USA and here and elsewhere, the so called reputable schools had nuisance foreign oversight that oppress with self serving perpetual bureaucracy, meetings and monitoring. So called reputable schools tend to have much more of this kind of pretend Im a manager , pretend I know ELT types. I know a few good foreign managers but it's rare. Id rather work for a local run school any day.

[The Mad Hatter]

Even when the economy was good in the USA and here and elsewhere, the so called reputable schools had nuisance foreign oversight that oppress with self serving perpetual bureaucracy, meetings and monitoring. So,its preferable to work at less reputable schools.

[ajc19810]

[magistra]